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Backed by 120+ Years Collective Experience | Certified Mediators on Staff | Guardian ad Litem on Team | Local Columbia Office
Gump, Faiella & Bugalski | Columbia Office: 1000 W. Nifong, Bldg 2, Suite 220B | 573-818-2646
If you are dealing with a child custody issue in Columbia or Boone County, whether you are starting a divorce, going through a paternity case, modifying an existing order, or trying to enforce one that is not being followed, Gump, Faiella & Bugalski can help you protect your time with your child and your role as a parent.
Missouri custody law went through a meaningful change in 2023. The court now starts from a presumption that equal or roughly equal parenting time is in the child’s best interest, and that presumption affects almost every case filed in Boone County today. The shift sounds simple, but how it plays out in a specific case depends on the ability of the parties to co-parent, the parenting plan drafted by your counsel, and how the eight statutory best-interest factors actually apply to your family. Combined with the income figures and time credits that apply to Form 14, child support calculations, these issues are complex and generic answers to the Court’s inquiries are not helpful. Your attorney will have to exercise their best judgment to get you the best result.
Our Columbia family law team handles custody as part of nearly every family law case we take, and because of that experience, we bring the kind of practical understanding of Missouri custody law to our cases that produces positive results for our clients.
Most parents do not start by searching for a custody attorney. They start with a different problem and realize custody is part of it.
The most common situations we see in Columbia and Boone County:
The legal procedure looks different depending on which of these situations you are in, but the underlying analysis is similar. Missouri courts decide custody using the best-interest standard in RSMo § 452.375, and every custody case eventually comes back to those factors.
Missouri law treats custody as two separate questions, and many parents come into a case without understanding the distinction.
Legal custody is the authority to make major decisions about the child’s life: education, non-emergency medical care, religious upbringing, and similar long-term issues. Missouri courts strongly favor joint legal custody, which means both parents share decision-making authority and are required to consult each other before making major decisions. Sole legal custody is awarded only when joint decision-making is unworkable, typically because of significant conflict, safety concerns, or one parent’s documented inability to participate constructively.
Physical custody refers to where the child resides and how parenting time is allocated between the parents. Physical custody may be joint or sole. Even where one parent is awarded sole physical custody, the other parent may still exercise substantial parenting time depending upon the circumstances of the case and what arrangements serve the child’s best interests.
A judgment will spell out both. It will name the legal custody arrangement, the physical custody arrangement, the regular weekly schedule, the holiday and vacation schedule, decision-making authority on specific issues, and the mechanisms for communication and dispute resolution. Each piece matters, and each is negotiable in most cases.
When parents cannot agree, the court decides custody using the eight factors in RSMo § 452.375.2:
The court is not weighing these factors in a vacuum. A judge wants to see specific evidence tied to the specific factors that matter most in your case. Generic claims do not move the needle. Documentation, witnesses, and a parenting plan that addresses the practical realities of your family’s situation do.
Effective August 28, 2023, Missouri law includes a rebuttable presumption that equal or approximately equal parenting time is in the child’s best interests. The presumption does not guarantee a 50/50 parenting schedule in every case, and courts continue to evaluate the statutory best-interest factors under § 452.375 when determining the parenting arrangement most appropriate for a particular family.
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Every Missouri custody case requires a parenting plan under RSMo § 452.310. Parents who reach an agreement submit a joint plan. Parents who do not agree each submit their own, and the court chooses, modifies, or replaces them.
The quality of a parenting plan affects the outcome in ways that surprise most clients. A generic template signals to the court that a parent has not thought carefully about the child’s actual needs. A specific, well-constructed plan signals the opposite.
A parenting plan needs to address the following items.
A plan that addresses these specifics tends to hold up. A plan that does not creates issues ripe for the next dispute.
Specific days, specific exchange times, specific exchange locations.
Which holidays go with which parent, alternating patterns, summer and winter break schedules, and how Thanksgiving and Christmas are split.
Whether decisions are made jointly or by one parent, with mechanisms for resolving disagreements.
How the parents will communicate with each other, how each parent communicates with the child during the other's time, and the use of co-parenting apps where appropriate.
Who drives where, and at what point in the exchange each parent assumes responsibility.
What happens when a child changes schools, when a parent moves within the state, or when the schedule needs to adjust as the child gets older.
Whether a parent who cannot exercise their parenting time must offer the time to the other parent before arranging alternative childcare.
Procedures required by Missouri's relocation statute if either parent intends to move the child's principal residence.
Custody orders are not permanent. Under RSMo § 452.410, a court may modify a prior custody order when there has been a change in circumstances since the order was entered and the modification serves the child’s best interest. The change has to be based on facts that arose after the original order or facts the court did not know about at the time. A parent seeking modification must generally prove both a substantial change in circumstances and that the requested modification serves the child’s best interests.
Common grounds for modification we see in Boone County include:
Modifications are not automatic. The parent seeking the change carries the burden of showing both a substantial change and that the modification is in the child’s best interest. Strong modifications start with documentation of the change and a clear analysis of how the existing plan no longer fits.
When one parent is not following a court-ordered parenting plan, the other parent can file a motion for contempt. The court has authority to enforce the order, impose make-up time, order one parent to pay the other’s attorney fees, and in serious or repeated cases, impose other consequences for noncompliance. Depending upon the circumstances, enforcement may occur through a motion for contempt, a Family Access Motion under Missouri law, or other appropriate remedies available to the Court.
Documentation is what makes an enforcement action work. Specific dates, specific incidents, communications between the parents, and a clear pattern of noncompliance are what the court needs to see. Vague claims that the other parent “never follows the schedule” do not move a contempt motion forward.
Repeated noncompliance can also support a motion to modify custody. When one parent consistently undermines the other’s relationship with the child, that pattern is directly relevant to the best-interest factors the court must consider.
Many custody disputes can be resolved at least in part through mediation. Boone County and the 13th Judicial Circuit make extensive use of mediation in contested family law cases, and reaching an agreement before trial saves time, cost, and the emotional strain of litigation for both parents and the child.
Our firm has certified mediators on staff who handle family law mediation. When mediation makes sense, we can guide you through it. When it does not, particularly in cases involving domestic violence, significant power imbalances, or one parent who refuses to engage in good faith, we are prepared to move the case forward through the court.
Mediation is rarely all or nothing. Even in cases that go to trial, some issues are often resolved through mediation along the way. A parent who is open to mediation on the right issues typically gets a better outcome than a parent who treats every dispute as a fight.
Custody cases that go badly often share the same early mistakes. A parent who reacts emotionally to the other parent’s filings, who refuses to engage with the parenting plan they are asked to submit, or who treats the case as a fight to be won rather than a question of how to share a child gives up ground that is hard to recover.
The 2023 equal parenting time presumption has made the early stages of a case more important than they used to be. A parent who is going to argue for less than equal parenting time needs to be building that case from the first filing, not waiting until trial. A parent who is going to argue for more than equal time needs to be doing the same. The court is starting from 50/50, and the parents who arrive prepared to address that presumption directly are the parents whose cases move efficiently.
What often surprises clients is how much of a custody case is documentation rather than argument. Parenting journals, school records, medical records, communications between the parents, and a clear factual record of how the family has actually functioned matter more than how forcefully an attorney argues at a hearing. We work with clients to build that record from the start.
Jordan focuses her practice on divorce, child custody, high-asset divorce, and mediation from our Columbia office. A certified mediator and Guardian ad Litem, she brings a track record in complex custody litigation and is admitted to practice in Missouri and Alabama and before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
Ben focuses his practice on divorce, custody, and property division from our Columbia office. A certified mediator and Guardian ad Litem, he brings disciplined preparation and deep familiarity with the Boone County court system to every case he handles. Ben is admitted to practice in Missouri.
Our Columbia-based family law team draws on the strength of our Moberly office as well:
Together with the full Gump, Faiella & Bugalski team, this gives Columbia clients access to one of the largest dedicated family law groups in the area. Every attorney at our firm takes cases in Boone County.
Our Columbia office serves clients throughout Boone County and the surrounding Mid-Missouri area, including Ashland, Hallsville, Centralia, and Harrisburg.
We also maintain our primary office at 110 North Fifth Street, Moberly, MO 65270, where our managing member and additional attorneys are based. Call 660-263-3100 for our Moberly office.
Gump, Faiella & Bugalski, LLC 1000 W. Nifong, Blvd Building 2, Suite 220B Columbia, MO 65203
Phone: 573-818-2646
Toll Free: 800-264-3455
Office Hours:
Monday – Thursday: 9 AM – 12 PM, 1 – 5 PM
Friday: 9 AM – 12 PM, 1 – 4 PM
Since 2023, Missouri courts have presumed that equal or approximately equal parenting time is in the child’s best interest under RSMo § 452.375. This means the court starts from the position that a 50/50 split is appropriate. If you are seeking more or less than equal time, you carry the burden of presenting evidence that a different arrangement better serves your child based on the statutory factors. The presumption is rebuttable, but rebutting it requires specific evidence tied to the best-interest factors.
The substantive standard is the same statewide. Missouri courts apply the best-interest factors in RSMo § 452.375 in every custody case. Boone County has its own scheduling practices, judges, and local procedures, and the 13th Judicial Circuit makes extensive use of mediation in contested family law cases. Attorneys who practice regularly in Boone County understand how local judges weigh the statutory factors and how cases tend to move through the local docket.
Yes, but sole custody is the exception in Missouri rather than the rule. Courts strongly favor arrangements that maintain both parents’ involvement in the child’s life. Sole legal custody is most commonly awarded where the evidence demonstrates that the parties cannot effectively communicate regarding major decisions affecting the child or where joint decision-making would not serve the child’s best interests.
Sole physical custody is most often awarded when the child living with one parent is clearly in the child’s best interest. A parent seeking sole custody needs specific evidence tied to the best-interest factors.
No. Missouri law specifically prohibits courts from giving preference based on a parent’s sex under RSMo § 452.375.8. Mothers and fathers are evaluated using the same best-interest factors. Courts look at parenting involvement, stability, willingness to support the child’s relationship with the other parent, and the other statutory criteria. Our attorneys regularly represent both mothers and fathers in custody matters.
There is no specific age in Missouri at which a child can choose. The statute requires the court to consider the child’s wishes when the child is mature enough to express them free from coercion or manipulation. As a practical matter, the older and more articulate the child, the more weight a judge tends to give the child’s input. The court is never bound by what the child wants, and a child’s preference is one factor among eight rather than a deciding factor on its own. Ultimately, no child has the unilateral right to decide where he or she will live.
The 2023 amendment to RSMo § 452.375 does not automatically reopen existing orders. An existing order remains in effect unless and until a court modifies it. If circumstances have changed since your order was entered, you may be able to seek a modification under RSMo § 452.410, and the current version of the best-interest statute will apply to the modification analysis.
Yes. When parents were never married, custody is established through a paternity action rather than a divorce. The substantive standard is the same: the court applies the best-interest factors in RSMo § 452.375 and approves or imposes a parenting plan. Paternity must be legally established before custody and support orders are entered.
Timelines depend on the complexity of the case and the court’s schedule. Uncontested cases where parents reach agreement can move through relatively quickly. Contested cases that involve discovery, custody evaluations, and trial typically take several months to over a year. Mediation can shorten the timeline significantly when it works.
If you are facing a child custody issue in Columbia or the surrounding Boone County area, the strength of your case depends on the preparation that goes into it from the start. Gump, Faiella & Bugalski brings the family law team, the local court experience, and the practitioner-level understanding of Missouri custody law that custody cases require.
Call our Columbia office at (573) 818-2646 or request a consultation to discuss your situation. Family law consultations involve a fee, which goes toward a detailed review of your case and your options.
Gump, Faiella & Bugalski, LLC 1000 W. Nifong, Building 2, Suite 220B Columbia, MO 65203
This page is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every family law case involves unique circumstances. For advice specific to your situation, contact Gump, Faiella & Bugalski at 573- 818-2646.
